I uploaded these two photos and asked Claude to identify both birds above, like this: identify this bird seen eating flax seeds in Waikawa Beach, Horowhenua, New Zealand. 🐦

I had my suspicions and they were confirmed when Claude replied:

This appears to be a chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs), specifically a male chaffinch based on its coloration. The bird has:

• A pinkish-orange/buff breast and face
• A bluish-gray head cap
• A distinctive perched posture on what looks like a dried flax seed pod or similar plant

Chaffinches are common in New Zealand, though they're not native - they were introduced from Europe in the 1860s. They're known to feed on seeds, including flax seeds, which aligns with your observation at Waikawa Beach in the Horowhenua region.

The setting of dried seed heads against the blurred green background is typical of New Zealand coastal and wetland areas where flax plants (harakeke) are common.

And for the second:

This appears to be a greenfinch (Chloris chloris), another introduced species in New Zealand. You can identify it by:

• Its predominantly yellow-green plumage
• Compact, finch-like body structure
• The positioning on the dried flax seed head (harakeke)

Greenfinches were introduced to New Zealand from Europe in the 1860s and have become well-established throughout the country. They particularly favor seeds, including those from flax plants, which explains why you've observed it feeding at Waikawa Beach.

Like the chaffinch in your previous image, this bird is taking advantage of the abundant seed resources provided by native New Zealand flax plants, despite being a non-native species itself. Greenfinches have strong beaks well-adapted for cracking open seeds.

Tomorrow is the auction where our Waikawa Beach house may not sell.

We met with the auctioneer and estate agent to discuss the reserve price and what happens next.

We can expect offers though within the next two weeks. Apparently this is normal — Selling a house at auction:

If the property fails to sell it is “passed in”. The sale can continue through negotiation with a buyer either on the day or in the following days with many sales completed within 24-48 hours.

All a bit nerve-wracking …

While Aotearoa is in the South Pacific, I guess technically both Waikawa Beach and New Plymouth are actually on the Tasman Sea, and South and North Taranaki Bight respectively.

Nevertheless for the Pacific Wave Appreciation Society, the following video from Autere / East End Beach, New Plymouth. 🌊

I usually take my Waikawa Beach photos from across the estuary, somewhere south of the river throat. That's several hundred metres south of the river throat where a groyne is.

Standing at the groyne looking south on a particularly high tide gives quite a different impression.

Not something I've seen in the skies above Waikawa Beach before now. 😳

Big day today. In theory they've started breaking ground at our new Ruakākā property. Meanwhile we just signed all the million forms to engage an estate agent to sell our Waikawa Beach place.

• Nope, not a meth lab.
• Nope, no one died here.
• Nope, no hazardous waste stored here.
• …

For the Pacific Wave Appreciation Society. Waikawa Beach, with a stiff southerly. 🌊

We don't yet have a start date for the house build at Ruakākā, but we expect to move perhaps mid-2025.

Now that 2024 has come to a close we're turning our thoughts to selling up here at Waikawa Beach. And so we're beginning the process of cleaning up and clearing out.

A little bit every day …

Well, today's Waikawa Beach news. The driver can't have known there's nowhere to go with a car once at Waikawa Beach. And those Walkers Lane paddocks — just a short sprint from our house.

But look how quickly it went down: about 10 minutes.

The forecast for the next few days at Ruakākā and Waikawa Beach shows a bit of difference. 🥵

I enjoy a bit of heat!

This is the view — from south to north — on arriving at Waikawa Beach over the north track off Reay Mackay Grove.

Waikawa Beach rain. @JeremyWxBaker

Our Whangārei friends have a very pleasant and comfortable place but their Internet is really poor. So sick of photos taking forever to load. Deb's done a few Zoom calls — with difficulty. I need to stay offline while she does that.

I'm looking forward to our fast Internet back at Waikawa Beach.

It was a very unusual visitor to Waikawa Beach. My friend Stephen Betts found this injured bird on the beach and took it to Wellington Zoo for care. 🐦

Photos by Stephen Betts and used with permission.

The zoo updated:

the albatross is bright this morning and currently stable. It is indeed a light mantled sooty albatross.

Toroa pango | Light Mantled Sooty Albatross.

I might have seen my first aurora — rather subtle, but the iPhone brought out the colours. Thanks to Ian Griffin's tipoff post from last night. This was around 5 am at Waikawa Beach, north of Wellington.

// @iangriffin@mastodon.nz

Today's beach find was a first for me: a 2 metre Blue shark (Prionace glauca). So much bigger than the sharks that usually wash up on Waikawa Beach.

Also known as the blue whaler or blue pointer, the blue shark’s upper body is a striking cobalt blue and the underside is bright white. Their large black eyes have a protective membrane to shield it from struggling prey.

Via: Summer Series Week 2: Sharks of summer | NIWA.

A Google image search led me to Megabalanus, and then I found my way to Pink Barnacles (Beach Barnacles Of New Zealand) · iNaturalist NZ.

Of course I'd heard of barnacles but I had no idea that's what this is. It's not uncommon to find these on Waikawa Beach.

See also Beloved Barnacles.

Today I attended a really interesting talk by Associate Professor Phil Battley, Zoology & Ecology Group, Massey University at the local Forest and Bird branch meeting.

Red Knots … The Secrets they Hold

Despite being the second-most numerous Arctic shorebird species to visit Aotearoa, the migrations of red knots / huahou to and from their Russian breeding grounds have been largely mysterious. …

I haven't seen Red Knots at Waikawa Beach but they are found just up the road at the Manawatū Estuary.

It's been a whole week since I spotted an unusual visitor to Waikawa Beach and I assumed it had left. But today I again spotted the kōtuku white heron by the river and was able to get quite close. Such beautiful birds. 🐦

Something I love about Waikawa Beach …

… is the wide open space, and lack of other people.

My day went awry in the best possible way. I cut short my bike ride to collect my Fuji X-T5 and take photos of a rare visitor to Waikawa Beach: a Kōtuku | White heron. 🐦

Such amazing birds!

Ohhhh, folks on the Waikawa Beach Facebook group have been posting spectacular aurora photos … and I'm away up north. Darn!

Around 0720 a fuel tanker rolled a few Km north of Waikawa Beach. In spite of detours, that effectively closed the road so traffic north and south has been a nightmare all day.

It's taking Deb ~3.5 hours to get home from Wellington (a 1.25 hour trip) because of backed up traffic. Photo from FB.

OK Pacific Wave Appreciation Society — some gentle Waikawa Beach waves to start the day. 🌊

This morning I joined a couple of other members of the Horowhenua branch of Forest and Bird to do a bird count at Waikawa Beach estuary. We don't have so many birds around at the moment, but along with the usuals we spotted a flock of maybe 60 white-fronted terns, and also 5 banded dotterels. 🙌🏼 🐦